One with the wave

[ACSRT: Why Is Misaka Mikoto Here!?]

Joule glanced around the room. Accelerator was standing shakily and beside him was the scientist, the one behind all of this.

Lightning crackled beside her as Misaka's emotions reached a pitch.

"Now then. What have you done to my sisters?"

In that moment, the scientist must have realised something.

Lumen had told Joule that he'd just destroyed the method that could be used to free the Misaka network. Now Mikoto Misaka, A Level 5 that he hadn't been prepared for, had entered the room and demanded to know what he had done.

The fact that his fear wasn't completly obvious was testament to his training.

"Now..."

Lumen told Joule that the scientist's mind was going a mile a minute. Even so, Misaka stepped forward.

"What, you thought you could mess with my sisters and just get away with it?"

"Hold on now," He held up a finger and pointed over at Accelerator who hadn't taken his eyes off the scientist "You'd be helping Accelerator."

Misaka's lips grew tight. She wasn't over it. Of course she wasn't.

However-

"I'm not helping him." Misaka said "We just happen to have the same goal. And you're standing in our way."

She began to pull a coin out of her pocket and the scientist glanced over at Last Order. Accelerator was between him and the girl so he couldn't use her as a hostage.

Even as he thought though, Accelerator lunged at him. Lumen was apparently helping manage his brain damage to make those kinds of movements possible and Misaka covered Joule as she moved over to examine Last Order.

Joule placed her hand on the young girl's head as she sent out a feeler of her own to look at her brain.

The signal was strong but strange. It was using paths that normal signals would use but the actual data being passed... There was a punch of strange waves in her chest. Maybe...

As Accelerator forced the scientist to dodge away, Misaka tased him quickly and he fell to the floor. Joule glanced up as she continued to analyse the virus and saw that Misaka was now trying very hard to get a determined Accelerator to not kill the scientist.

Accelerator was trying his best to strangle the unconscious man and Misaka- loathe to touch him- was dragging the scientist around the room.

"Charge his choker." Joule noted "He should become more rational then."

"Is it fair to say I really don't want to?" Misaka noted as she continued to drag the fully grown man around the room "Right now I could knock him out with a bolt."

"Then just do that." Joule suggested.

Misaka blinked and then did. Next time they went to grapple, she poked Accelerator with two fingers.

"Huh."

"You okay?" Joule asked.

"Fine." Misaka admitted "It didn't feel as good as I thought it would."

[ACSRT: Little by Little]

Leaving that alone, Joule kept working.

"I've got it." She said after a minute "But I want to call Index first to make sure I got this right."

She pulled out her phone and dialed. Index picked up on the second ring.

"Index, I'm next to the central terminal of the Misaka network. Would you know anything about the strange waves I'm getting off of her?"

"Strange waves?" The question was asked both by Index and by Misaka as she lifted Accelerator and put him down on a chair in the office.

"They look similar to AIM waves but not quite the same. They remind me of the waves from the lights. Can you define to me what an Angel actually is? Magically speaking I mean?"

Index didn't say anything for a few seconds then began to answer "Very simply, an angel is any amount of Telesma- A power obtained through heaven- held within a physical container- typically some kind of host. Some kinds of spells can create containers or channel Telesma. Touma and I encountered that sort of thing last Summer. If you're standing next to the source of the angel, the mass of 'waves' you see is likely it's core."

"Wait so... in this case, The core is here and the Container is Kazukiri?"

"Yes." Index confirmed "The Telesma seems to be everywhere though. It's flowing all around the city."

Joule had putten her phone on speaker mode as she placed it on the table. When Misaka had heard that description though, she looked up.

"What, like AIM?"

The waves in the core, as Joule had made note of, were like AIM.

"Magically speaking, what is Telesma, what is it literally made of? Magic?"

"No, Mana and Telesma are two different things. They're only lightly related, like the power of Espers and Mana."

"In theory," Joule worked through the idea "Is there a term for a being that's Mana inside a container?"

"A golem." Index suggested "It isn't quite one to one though. Golems are far weaker than angels."

"So-" Joule read the waves more deeply "Would there be a name for AIM inside a container?"

Misaka's eyes went wide as she realised what Joule had theorised "Something like the AIM burst?"

"The what?" Index hadn't heard about it then. When Misaka explained the concept to her, Index agreed "The theory is sound. This is an artificial angel born from the city's AIM fields, controlled by that Network."

With some more talking, Index determined the best way to fix the problem would just be to remove the virus.

Without it, the "Telesma" that made up the "Angel" would break apart again.

Joule opened her mouth and coughed.

"Sorry, dry throat."

Misaka ran to get her some water. While she was gone, Joule looked out of the window and saw the light dancing in the sky.

She understood it somehow. Not that she could read it, but that she knew what it "said."

Misaka returned and Joule wet her throat. Something still felt wrong with it though.

Regardless, Joule began to sing.

[ASG: World End]

It was the same song she'd used when she needed to interact with the network before. It would be enough.

End of chapter.

So, important notes: Thanks to the fact the others showed up, Accelerator never unlocked his wings. That... might end up having effects in the future.

Either way, now everything is just clean up.